Cooling towers



March 19, 1963 G. w. MEEK ETAL 3,081,987

COOLING TOWERS Filed July 12-, 1960 United States Patent 3,081,987 COOLING TOWERS George W. Meek, 29 Cliiford Ave., Pelham, N.Y., and

Per Gunnar Norbiick, 33 Askrikevagen Lidingo 1,

Stockholm, Sweden Filed July 12, 1960, Ser. No. 42,298 Claims priority, application Sweden July 13, 1959 2 Claims. (Cl. 261--112) This invention generally relates to cooling towers.

More particularly this invention relates to cooling tower of the evaporative type having a casing and a gas and liquid contact body located within said casing and means to bring a liquid and a gas into direct contact with one another. In most cases the liquid is Water and the gas air.

Still more particularly the invention relates to cooling towers of the evaporative type having a casing and an air and water contact body housed within said casing and formed with-a plurality of narrow channels extending through said body, and a liquid distributing or spraying device mounted above said body for supply of and distribution of water into the channels thereof, and means to cause said water to drain from the underside of said body and to fall down on a water collecting and draining surface, and means to maintain open communication between the lower part of said contact body and the urrounding atmosphere to cause air to flow upwards through the channels of said body.

' One main object of the invention is to improve cooling towers of the type in consideration so as to avoid wetting of the surroundings thereof.

A further object of the invention is to provide a cooling tower which adjacent its water collecting and draining surface is provided with means preventing water drops impinging on said surface from splashing back with an angle relative the horizontal plane acute enough to allow the drops to find their way outside the casing of the tower.

Still a further object of the invention is to provide a cooling tower having a water collecting and draining system comprising at least one trough with low lateral walls so as to have small'vertical dimensions and provided with means preventing Water drops drained 01f from the underside of the contact body and falling down onto the bottom of said trough from splashing out of said trough, wetting the surroundings of the cooling tower and getting wasted.

Further objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description, considered in connection with the accompanying drawing which forms part of this specification and in which an embodiment of the invention is presented in a perspective sectional view.

Referring to the drawing, reference numeral denotes a casing carried by support legs 12. Preferably the entire rectangular cross-section of said casing 10 is occupied by a contact body or fill 14. Said fill is suitably of the type disclosed in the Patent No. 2,809,818 to Carl Georg Munters to the specification of which reference is made for a more detailed description of the fill in consideration. Generally spoken the fill is composed of alternately even and corrugated sheets or partition walls made of paper. The sheets are bonded together to'form packings resting with their base on a flange 16 projecting rectangularly from the casing 10. The paper sheets are highly water absorptive and have good structural strength when in a wetted state due to impregnation with-a suitable substance such as some phenolic resin. The spacing between the even sheets may be so small that the water would be capable by surface tension to bridge over and block the channels between the sheets, and in order 3,081,987 Patented Mar. 19, 1963 to render possible a flow by which the channels are kept open the fills are formed at the base with inclined cuts so as to obtain a sawtooth-like shape and to create flaps or projections 18. The air is fed to the underside of the fill 14 through openings formed in the casing 10 and through the space between the legs 12. The air flows upwards through the many channels of the till within which it meets the water flowing downwards through the channels. Part of said water is evaporated into the air causing a cooling effect. The air is caused to stream through the apparatus due to the suction effect exercised by a fan 20 driven by an electric motor 22, both said fan and said motor being located in a duct 24- formed in the upper portion of the casing. Since the casing 10 is open below the fill 14, the air has free access from all directions to the underside of said fill.

The Water is distributed over the upper face of the fill by means of a liquid distributing device provided with one or a plurality of sprayer arms 26, the number of which in the embodiment shown is two, which are positioned diametrically opposite and formed with discharge openings 28 most suitably arranged in a part-helical row. The arms 26 are carried by and freely communicate with a top-open container 30 which is closed at itsbase lend entered from above by a tube 32. Said tube is at 34 detachably connected with another tube 36.

Disposed centrally within the suitably cylindricalshaped container 30 is a sleeve 38 anchored with its lower end at the bottom of, and projecting upwards within said container. The upper end of the sleeve 30 is closed and constitutes a preferably conically shaped bearing surface for the correspondingly conical top portion of a pivot 40 projecting from below upwards into said sleeve. The pivot 40 is mounted on a holder having the shape of a disc 42, for example, and an arm-cross 44 the downwardly bent end portions of which enter channels of the fill 14. In this simple manner the correct position of the pivot and the liquid distributing device is ensured. The pivot 40 projects with a play through the sleeve 38. This latter may be made of some non-metallic material such as a synthetical plastic material possessing favorable sliding properties. As will easily be understood, the pivot 40 operates inside a bearing space sealed from the more or less impure water. The tube 32 has a widened end portion 46 opening with some play over the sleeve 38.

The discharge openings 28 are arranged in the lower part of the arms 26 in such a manner as to impart to the jets of water discharged from said openings a horizontally acting flow component causing rotation of the distributing device. The magnitude of the reaction force produced in this way is determined by the height of the water column in the container 30 which height may be some or several decimetres. Since the sprayer arms 26 follow a circular path and consequently sprinkle a surface having a circular outer boundary, the corner portions of the fill 14 are covered by a plate 48.

The water drained from the free ends of the flaps 18 is collected in a trough 50 and flows therefrom into a pan 52 from which the cooled water is supplied by a pump 56 through a conduit 54 to a place of utilization such as the condenser of a refrigerating machine. From there the water returns tiu'ough the tubes 36, 32 to the container 30 of the distributing device for renewed cooling. Screens 58, 60 destined for separation and removal of larger solid particles entrained with the water may be provided in the container 38 and above the pan 52, respectively.

Mounted within the trough 50 is a kind of grate generally designated by 62 and composed of vertically edgewise disposed strips having a breadth of one or a few centimetres only. In the same manner as the sheets of the fill 14 the strips may be alternately even and corrugated, as is indicated at 64 and 66. The strip material is advantageously the same as that used to form the fill which means that it should have water-absorbing property and be constituted by a fibrous material such as paper given wet-strength by impregnation with a phenolic resin, for example. The strips of paper which form the grate are preferably of less thickness than the diameter of the water drops impinging against them. The spacing between the strips is shown in the drawing to be greater than the spacing between the sheets of the fill 14, but it may be of the same magnitude. It is essential that the water drops falling down from the free ends of the projections 18 can pass in an unobstructed manner through the channels of the grate 62 and that a rebounding out of the grate is possible with so great an angle of inclination relative the horizontal plane that the rebounded drops cannot reach outside the casing 10. In this way the place where the apparatus is erected, is protected against wetting. As is readily understood, the air draught through the lower lateral openings which follows an inward direction from outside, assists in retaining the splash Water within the trough. The grate 62 suitably rests on a support 68 in order to allow the water to drain off along an unobstructed path at the bottom of the trough 50- to the pan 52. As a result of the invention the lateral walls of the trough 50 can be made low so as not to reduce the width of the air openings formed in the lateral walls of the casing of the cooling tower.

The free ends of the projections or flaps 18 may also be arranged in spaced relation above narrow troughs or channels following the longitudinal extention of said projections and collecting the drops of water drained off to deliver the water to a common collecting channel. These troughs or channels together form the common drain or discharge surface for the water and they are at a minor distance from their base or bottom provided with a grate system of the kind embodying the present invention so as to avoid all splash.

While one more or less specific embodiment of the invention has been shown and described, it is to be understood that this is for purpose of illustration only, and that the invention is not to be limited thereby, but its scope is to be determined by the appended claims.

What we claim is:

1. In a cooling tower having a casing, a gas and liquid contact body formed with a plurality of channels located within said casing, a spraying device disposed above said contact body and formed for supply and distribution of water to the channels of said body from the underside of which the water supplied to the body drops down onto a collecting and draining surface, means to keep the lower part of said contact body and the surrounding atmosphere in open communication for supply of air in an upward direction through the channels of said body, grate-shaped means mounted in spaced relation above said collecting and draining surface and composed of edgewise vertically disposed strips of paper thickness and of less thickness than the diameter of the water drops impinging against them forming channels between themselves, said grateshaped means with strips of the thickness mentioned being adapted to prevent water drops impinging on said collecting and draining surface from splashing back in an upward direction with such acute angle relative the horizontal plane as to cause wetting of the surroundings outside said casing.

2. In a cooling tower having a casing, a gas and liquid contact body formed with a plurality of channels located within said casing, a spraying device disposed above said contact body and formed for supply and distribution of water to the channels of said body from the underside of which the water supplied to the body drops down onto a collecting and draining surface, means to keep the lower part of said contact body and the surrounding atmosphere in open communication for supply of air in an upward direction through the channels of said body, grate-shaped means mounted in spaced relation above said collecting and draining surface and composed of edgewise vertically disposed strips of paper thickness and of less thickness than the diameter of the drops of water impinging against them forming channels between themselves, said grateshaped means being adapted to prevent water drops impinging on said collecting and draining surface from splashing back in an upward direction with such acute angle relative the horizontal plane as to cause wetting of the surroundings outside said casing, said strips being made of a fibrous material having water absorbing capacity.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,622,652 Lang Mar. 29, 1927 2,119,923 McIntyre June 7, 1938 2,809,818 Munters Oct. 15, 1957 

1. IN A COOLING TOWER HAVING A CASING, A GAS AND LIQUID CONTACT BODY FORMED WITH A PLURALITY OF CHANNELS LOCATED WITHIN SAID CASING, A SPRAYING DEVICE DISPOSED ABOVE SAID CONTACT BODY AND FORMED FOR SUPPLY AND DISTRIBUTION OF WATER TO THE CHANNELS OF SAID BODY FROM THE UNDERSIDE OF WHICH THE WATER SUPPLIED TO THE BODY DROPS DOWN ONTO A COLLECTING AND DRAINING SURFACE, MEANS TO KEEP THE LOWER PART OF SAID CONTACT BODY AND THE SURROUNDING ATMOSPHERE IN OPEN COMMUNICATION FOR SUPPLY OF AIR IN AN UPWARD DIRECTION THROUGH THE CHANNELS OF SAID BODY, GRATE-SHAPED MEANS MOUNTED IN SPACED RELATION ABOVE SAID COLLECTING AND DRAINING SURFACE AND COMPOSED OF EDGEWISE VERTICALLY DISPOSED STRIPS OF PAPER THICKNESS AND OF LESS THICKNESS THAN THE DIAMETER OF THE WATER DROPS IMPINGING AGAINST THEM FORMING CHANNELS BETWEEN THEMSELVES, SAID GRATESHAPED MEANS WITH STRIPS OF THE THICKNESS MENTIONED BEING ADAPTED TO PREVENT WATER DROPS IMPINGING ON SAID COLLECTING AND DRAINING SURFACE FROM SPLASHING BACK IN AN UPWARD DIRECTION WITH SUCH ACUTE ANGLE RELATIVE THE HORIZONTAL PLANE AS TO CAUSE WETTING OF THE SURROUNDINGS OUTSIDE SAID CASING. 